Taz Taylor Band – Welcome To America

Taz Taylor is the leader of this band. He’s an English guitar player and his first musical memories are “Parisienne Walkways” with Gary Moore and “Since You Been Gone” with Rainbow, so it’s not strange he decided to pick up the guitar. After a shorter break from the music industry in 1990, he decided to pick up the guitar again in 1995 to try to become one of the world’s greatest guitarists. After working for several years he released the solo album CAFFEINE RACER. After that he formed his current band, but when it was time to record the follow-up they didn’t want it to be an instrumental album so they hired none other than Graham Bonnet to do lead vocals. Taz Taylor and Graham Bonnet have written the material together and this is what it sounds like…

WELCOME TO AMERICA delivers English traditional hardrock/rock’n’roll that sounds a little like the old and not-so-commercial Rainbow back in the 70’s early 80’s. While Taz Taylor is amazing at what he does, Graham Bonnet is unfortunately not. His voice sounds tired and pale; nothing like it did in the Rainbow days. Still, it works kind of well with Taz Taylor’s music. Taz Taylor hasn’t quite succeeded in becoming one of the best guitarists ever; he’s great at what he does, but he’s way behind celebrities such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, and Gus G.

As anticipated, Taz Taylor features his own version of “Parisienne Walkways”, but also a song called “Goodbye Mr. C” which is originally “Goodbye to Romance” by Ozzy. The material is alright, but nothing reaches above standard. The songs that stand out are “Fighter’s Fist”, “Radio Luxembourg”, “Happy Hour”, and “Welcome to America”. “Parisienne Walkways”, the ballad “Haunted”, the mid-tempo ballad “Silent Hill”, and “Goodbye Mr.C” all could have been left out.

This album is a potential buy if you’re either into Graham Bonnet or in love with Taz Taylor. If you’re not, I promise you you won’t miss a thing.